Every year on the late May Bank Holiday, the National Pilgrimage to the Shrine of our Lady of Walsingham takes place. If you ever visit Walsingham for ‘The National’ as it’s often called, you’ll find that, as well as the thousands who are there to give thanks to God for the life, work and example of Mary, there are a few people who are there to protest against the whole thing. Their protest is usually on the grounds that those who are there to worship have got things all wrong. The protesters claim, actually they shout very loudly, that processing through the village carrying a statue of Mary makes the worshippers guilty of idolatry. And they claim, again very loudly, that it’s God and Christ we should be worshipping, not Mary. 

On the whole, and not surprisingly the protesters belong to Nonconformist  churches, that is, they’re not part of the Church of England but belong to Protestant Churches. I know that there are many individuals within the Church of England who say that they and the Church they belong to are Protestant. But while they’re quite at liberty to say that about themselves,  the Church of England itself has never claimed to be a Protestant Church but rather a Reformed Catholic Church. And the Church of England’s teaching about Mary is very closely aligned to that of the Roman Catholic Church, in fact, in 2005, the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission published an 80-page Agreed Statement that explains just how close the Churches are on their teaching about Mary.  

Nevertheless, there are a lot of people in the Church of England who would agree with what the Walsingham protesters say about the goings on at the National Pilgrimage, and probably in Walsingham generally. But to them I would say what I, and many others, have said at times to some of the quieter, more reasonable Walsingham protesters. To the charge of idolatry we are not-guilty. In religious terms, idolatry is the worship of an inanimate object. In the case of Walsingham, it’s worshipping a statue of Mary. But no one worships the statue of Mary; no one believes for a moment that the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham is a god. So the banner which the protesters often display which shows a little girl holding a doll and a bishop kneeling in front of the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham, the girl saying, “I play with my doll.” and the bishop saying,  “I pray to mine.” couldn’t be more wrong. No one prays to the statue of Mary. Like many other things we use in our churches, the statue is simply an aid to devotion, a reminder of an event, or events in the story of our salvation. Prayer, at Walsingham just as much as elsewhere, is only ever made to God the Father, through the Son in the power of the Spirit.  

And when it comes to worshipping Mary herself again, not-guilty. We do  not worship Mary, we venerate Mary, we give her the great respect that’s due to her for her role in the story of our salvation, most especially as the mother of our Lord, but also for her obedience to God’s will, her long-suffering support of her son in his earthly ministry and so on. And we look at Mary as an example of obedience and faith. We thank her for that, but we also thank God for her. We don’t worship Mary as though she was on a par with her son, co-equal with the Father and the Spirit. As the International Commission’s 2005 Agreed Statement puts it: 

‘We agree that doctrine and devotion which focuses on Mary must be carefully moderated to ensure the unique and central place of Jesus Christ in the life of the Church, and that Christ alone, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is to be worshipped in the Church.’  

And I have no doubt whatsoever that the first person who would agree with that statement would be Mary herself.  

In our Gospel reading this morning we read about Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, and that both Elizabeth, and her unborn baby, are overjoyed to see Mary and to hear her voice. But it’s worth taking note of why they were so overjoyed. Elizabeth says, 

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” 

If we think about that greeting, the source of joy isn’t rooted primarily in anything that Mary possessed in and of herself. It’s rooted in what God has done with and for and through Mary; that she is “…the mother of (the) Lord…” What is praiseworthy in Mary herself is her faith in God, her belief that in spite of all the difficulties and even dangers that doing what God had asked her to do will entail,  

“…that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” 

And Mary’s reply to Elizabeth’s greeting is in the same vein; 

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, 

for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. 

For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 

for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name…” 

It’s a song of praise to God and an acknowledgment that any blessedness that comes to Mary as a result of her obedience to God’s will, doesn’t come from what she has done for God, but from what God has done for her.  

If we take the trouble to look beyond the surface, this is something we find with Mary, and in the Church’s depictions of Mary. Mary always points away from herself and towards God and his Son, her son. If you look at an image of Mary and the Christ-child, whether that be a painting, a statue, or anything else, our attention is immediately drawn to Mary. And that’s understandable because she’s the larger figure and the central figure in the image. But if we pay closer attention to the image of Mary we invariably find one of two things. We sometimes find that Mary’s attention is on her son; we might be looking at her, but she is looking at him. And if Mary is looking at us as we look the image, we’ll notice that Mary’s hand is gesturing towards her son. It’s almost as if she’s looking at us and saying,  

“Don’t look at me; look at him.”  

We often talk about Mary as an example to Christians, and she is that in many ways. Mary accepted God’s call to be the mother of his Son. And so we hold her up as an example of obedience to God’s will, no matter how difficult following God’s will might be. As the mother of the Lord, things often happened that Mary didn’t really  understand but she stored these up and pondered them in her heart. And so we hold her up as an example of thinking deeply about how God might be at work in our lives when we don’t fully understand what’s going on. In spite of the difficulties, the dangers and the heartbreak involved, Mary stayed with her son right to the end, to the very foot of the Cross. And so we hold her up as an example of perseverance, of remaining faithful to Christ even the in the darkest times of our lives. And after Christ’s Ascension, Mary stayed with the disciples, waiting for the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost. And so we hold her up as an example of waiting patiently on the Lord, confident that his promises will be fulfilled.  

But we should also hold Mary up as an example of giving glory to God. We should hold her up as an example of selflessly pointing people towards her son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  

Whenever we do something praiseworthy because we’re Christians, perhaps something for the Church or some act of charity, it’s nice to receive some recognition and perhaps even some thanks and praise for what we’ve done, but we shouldn’t let that go to our heads and lead us into thinking that we should be placed on a pedestal. Instead we should follow Mary’s example and praise God who’s given us the gifts to do what we’ve done and given us the opportunity to use those gifts in his service. And if people do look at us and praise us for what we’ve done, we shouldn’t let that go to our heads either because there should be no place in the heart of a Christian for an attitude of smug superiority. No matter how praiseworthy a thing we’ve done is, we’ve done that thing in Christ’s name; we’ve done it for Christ in obedience to his teaching and commands. And as Christ said, 

“…when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” 

And we should follow Mary’s example and direct people’s attention away from ourselves and towards Christ. 

We’re now coming towards the end of Advent and our time to celebrate Christmas and the coming of Christ is almost here. Over the last few weeks we’ve heard from the great figures of Advent, the prophets, John the Baptist and Mary. But no matter how important they are in the story of our salvation, let’s never forget that, in and of themselves, they were no different to us. They were blessed because of what God did with them, for them and through them, and they were fully aware of that. And we can be blessed too if we allow God to work through us. So let’s try to follow their example, and especially the example of Mary, by listening for God’s call to us, by being obedient to his call and by persevering in faith. And however God chooses to bless us, let’s give him the thanks and praise and like the prophets, like John and Mary, allow our lives to point people towards the one they still point us towards, Jesus Christ our Lord.  

Amen. 

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Propers for Advent 4, 22nd December 2024

Entrance Antiphon
Drop down dew from above, you heavens,
and let the clouds rain down the Just One;
let the earth be opened and bring forth a Saviour.  

The Collect
God our redeemer,
who prepared the Blessed Virgin Mary to be the mother of your Son:
grant that, as she looked for his coming as our saviour,
so we may be ready to greet him when he comes again as our judge;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Micah 5:2-5
Psalm: 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-45

Post Communion
Heavenly Father,
who chose the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of the promised saviour:
fill us your servants with your grace,
that in all things we may embrace your holy will
and with her rejoice in your salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Today, the third Sunday of Advent, is one of only two Sundays in the Church’s year when we use rose as a liturgical colour, the other being the fourth Sunday of Lent. It’s no coincidence that both of these days are towards the end of these two great penitential seasons of the Church’s year. The usual liturgical colour the Church uses to denote penitence is purple, and the Church’s liturgical colour to denote celebration is white. So, as we come towards the end of Advent and Lent, we use rose to show that our time of penitential preparation is coming towards its conclusion, the time for celebrating the great feasts of Christmas and Easter is almost here, and so we use Rose because it’s seen as a mixture of purple and white, a mixture of penitence and celebration. And that’s reflected in this morning’s readings.

There’s no doubt whatsoever that the theme of our first three readings toady is praise and rejoicing. The prophet Zephaniah urges us to,

‘Rejoice and exult with all your heart…’

The Psalmist to,

‘Shout aloud and sing praise…’

And St Paul tells us to,

‘Rejoice in the Lord always…’

Given the nature of these readings, if we didn’t know that we were still in the season of Advent, we might think that Christmas had already come. But, to remind us that we’re not there yet, that we still have some time to go before we can fully celebrate the joy that’s coming into the world, along comes our Gospel reading and John the Baptist to remind us that we still preparing for that time, and that we still have work to do if we’re going to be ready for the coming of the Lord. And that’s obvious from the very beginning of this morning’s Gospel reading.

Last Sunday we heard John quoting the prophet Isaiah, urging people to,

“Prepare the way of the Lord.”

And if we were to read the few verses in between last Sunday’s Gospel and this Sunday’s Gospel, we’d hear John telling the crowds to,

“Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.”

And this morning’s Gospel begins with those crowds asking John,

“What then shall we do?”

In other words, how can we be ready for the coming of the Lord? And so this reminds us that even if we are very close to celebrating the Lord’s coming at Christmas, we’re not there just yet. We still have work to do and still a little more time to prepare. John’s answer to that question though might present us with something of a problem when it come to our own preparation.

John’s answer hints at the people who made up the crowds who went to hear him speak and be baptised by him. There were people who were perhaps a little more well-off than most; those who had “two tunics”. There were tax collectors and soldiers there too. So how does what John said to them apply to us?

First of all we have to accept that what John said does apply to us no matter how well-off we are and no matter what we do, or did, for a living. And we can show that by using some words St Paul’s Letter to the Colossians to sum up what John was saying.

‘…whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus…’

We have to take note of just what John does and doesn’t say in this morning’s Gospel. He doesn’t tell those with two tunics that they shouldn’t have two, but simply if they do, that they should share with those who have none. And the same goes for those who have food; again, share with those who don’t. John doesn’t tell the tax collectors to change their profession, but simply to do what they are doing honestly. And the same goes for soldiers. John doesn’t tell them to lay down their arms and do something else instead, but to avoid the obvious temptations of their profession; the abuse of power, of using force of arms, or even the threat of arms to take from others. We have to remember here too that, in those days, soldiers were very much involved in law enforcement, and they were paid from the same treasuries that fines for criminal behaviour were paid into, hence John’s warning not to make false accusations. So John doesn’t say that there’s anything wrong with being well-off, or even better off than others.

He doesn’t say that there’s anything wrong with doing certain things for a living. What he does say is that being ready to meet the Lord places moral and ethical demands on us. What ever we are and what ever we do, we need to live as God’s people, people who are honest in our dealings with others, people who avoid the temptation to abuse our position whether that be one of power and authority or of good fortune and wealth. If we’re going to be ready to meet the Lord when he comes, we have to love our neighbour because it’s only when we do that, that we can truly do what we do and say in the name of the Lord Jesus.

John’s words make it clear that this demand that being one of God’s people places on us extends to every aspect of our daily lives. So there’s no point in acting as a saint in church if you drop the act as soon as you walk out of church. Unfortunately, there are people who do this very thing. Indeed,  there are people who can’t even keep the act up in church and I’m sure we’ve all met some of them! But there are people who seem to think that as long as they come to church on Sunday, or even to simply say that they believe in God, that in some way absolves them of their obligation to live as one of God’s people. Very often these are the people who, if you point out to them that what they’re doing is not very Christian, resort to name-calling and finger-pointing:

“Well I’m not as bad as so and so, they’ve done this, that and the other. At least I don’t do things like that “

As if there’s some kind of scale of what is and isn’t acceptable when it comes to sin and as long as you’re not as bad as someone else, you’re on the acceptable side, and OK. But where are the fruits of repentance that John, and Jesus himself, called for in that? Indeed, is there any repentance there at all?

I do think though, that most of us fall into this kind of error. We fall into what I’ve called a halfway house Christianity. We do try to be the people we know we should be, but we end up doing what we think is enough without it taking too much effort or being too hard or uncomfortable for us. So we might have half a dozen or more coats, and we’ll give one to the charity shop or the church jumble sale, but only after we’ve bought a new one to replace it. We have food enough and so we’ll donate to food banks, but we’ll still spend far more on food that we end up wasting because we have too much, than on what we’ve given to those who don’t have enough. I’m sure we’ve all had little dodges going at work so that we get away with not doing as much as we’re supposed do, to spend a bit of time skiving. And we’ll have excused that, at least to ourselves, by saying that everyone else does it so why shouldn’t we. And if we’ve even stopped for a moment to think about the poor unfortunate who’s got to do extra work to make up for what we haven’t done, we’ve probably just shrugged our shoulders and thought that’s just the way things are. But how annoyed have we been when the boot’s been on the other foot, and we’ve had to do extra to make up for a colleague who’s skived off? And how many of us, if we’ve been in a supervisory or management role have indulged in nepotism, the ‘blue-eye’ game, and given preferential treatment to our family, friends or people we like and treated those we don’t get on with less favourably? We probably haven’t been doing anything other people aren’t doing , but again, how have we felt when we think this kind of inequality has been shown to us?

I’m sure we’ve all done these things but when we have, we’ve shown a lack of love, both towards our neighbour by not treating them as we would like to be treated ourselves, and towards God who calls us love our neighbour as we love ourselves. When we’ve done these things, we’ve sinned and we’re in need of repentance. The fruits of repentance, the thing that John asks us to show in readiness for the coming of the Lord, are shown in our willingness and our ability not to do these things again when the same circumstances arise.

As the people of God, this is the kind of people we’re called to be. This is what John is saying to us; that to be ready for the coming of the Lord we have to become the people God wants us to be by rooting out and stamping out all that stops us from being those people, wherever we find it in our lives. So today, as we look ahead and glimpse a little of the joy that awaits us at Christmas, let’s remember that we still have some way to go and some work to do before we can celebrate the coming of the Lord. And let’s think about just how much more joyful Christmas might be if we could celebrate it as people who are just a little bit closer to readiness because we’re a little bit closer to being the kind of people we’re called to be.

Amen.

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Propers for Advent 3, 15th December 2024

Entrance Antiphon
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.
Indeed, the Lord is near.

The Collect
O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries,
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way,
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world,
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Zephaniah 3:14-18
Psalm: Isaiah 12:2-6
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:10-18

Post Communion
We give you thanks, O Lord, for these heavenly gifts;
kindle in us the fire of your Spirit
that when your Christ comes again
we may shine as lights before his face;
who is alive and reigns now and for ever.
Amen.